- Judge rules James Comey’s daughter unlawfully fired as federal prosecutor
Source: The Hill
“A federal judge ruled Monday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) unlawfully fired and must provide back pay to Maurene Comey, former FBI Director James Comey’s daughter who was terminated as a prosecutor last year. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman rejected the Trump administration’s arguments that it had constitutional authority to fire her. ‘Defendants’ argument is contrary to an unbroken line of Supreme Court decisions dating back almost two centuries, and the Supreme Court itself has not formally overruled any of those decisions. That is sufficient, in itself, to reject the argument,’ Furman wrote in his 55-page opinion. Maurene Comey has since taken another job and won’t be returning to the DOJ. But the judge’s ruling retroactively reinstates her, provides her with back pay and restores pension benefits for the four-month period before she took that new role.” (10/26/26)
- Walter Koenig, 1936-2026
Source: Deadline
“Walter Koenig, who originated the role of Ensign Pavel Chekov in the 1960s Star Trek TV series and several subsequent movies about the adventures of the USS Enterprise, has died, according to his rep. He was 90. Zachery McGinnis of Galactic Productions posted Monday on Facebook that Koenig died of natural causes in North Hollywood but did not provide other details. George Takei, who played Sulu on the original Star Trek, also posted on Koenig’s death.” (10/26/26)
https://deadline.com/2026/10/walter-koenig-star-trek-chekov-1237176812/
- Airline security theater: United flight turns around midair over text on passenger’s phone
Source: New York Post
“A United Airlines flight heading to New Jersey returned to Las Vegas following an apparent hijacking threat Saturday. United Flight 1681 was carrying 150 passengers and six crew members from Harry Reid International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport on Oct. 24 when a flight attendant noticed a traveler sending messages with reference to taking control of the plane. The crew member did not engage with the passenger and quickly alerted the pilot. ‘The flight attendant saw him texting that he was going to hijack the aircraft. They called me. We went into lockdown, and we returned to Vegas,’ the flight’s pilot told an air traffic controller shortly after the plane took off, reported CBS News. When the controller inquired whether the passenger was cooperative or under restraint, the pilot said that the traveler showed ‘no restraint’ because ‘he’s unaware’.” (10/26/26)
- China: Communist Party opens fifth plenum with focus on discipline and loyalty to Xi
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“The Communist Party has started a key four-day conclave focused on party discipline and fighting corruption, as official media outlets say adherence to the party’s leadership under President Xi Jinping is key to the country’s success. The meeting – the fifth plenum of the Communist Party’s 20th Central Committee – began in Beijing on Monday, according to state news agency Xinhua. It said the main agenda for the plenum included a work report by the Politburo to the Central Committee and the adoption of a document aimed at ‘deepening party self-governance’.” (10/26/26)
- AK: Peltola pauses Senate campaign after car crash
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Mary Peltola, Alaska’s Democratic Senate candidate, has paused campaigning ahead of the US midterm elections after sustaining ‘minor injuries’ in a car crash. Peltola, 53, and her family were travelling to an event on Saturday when the vehicle they were in was hit by another driver, her campaign said in a statement. She is running in one of the most closely watched races in the elections, which take place on 3 November – one that could help decide the balance of power in government. Peltola has rescheduled campaign events ‘as she takes time to recover’ on the advice of medical professionals, her campaign manager, Cheryl Bruce, said in a statement. ‘Mary and her family sustained minor injuries but are in good spirits,’ Bruce said.” (10/26/26)
- Elvis Presley’s rights [sic] holders sue Anthropic, saying it trained AI on his music
Source: NBC News
“The owners [sic] of Elvis Presley’s music have sued Anthropic, alleging it used his copyrighted lyrics without permission to train its AI models and generating infringing versions of his songs. In a lawsuit filed Friday, Authentic Brands Group, the licensing platform that controls Presley’s intellectual property [sic] — along with other companies, trusts and individuals who own rights [sic] to his music — accused Anthropic of infringing copyrights to 274 songs without any license or payment. … The lawsuit by Presley’s rights [sic] holders comes amid a larger wave of lawsuits against Anthropic and other AI companies accused of using copyrighted musical works without consent or compensation.” (10/25/26)
- Vatican confirms Pope Leo’s Latin America trip after post-surgery checkup
Source: SFGate
“Pope Leo XIV will proceed with his planned Nov. 6-17 trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, after doctors determined there are no medical reasons preventing him from traveling three weeks after lung cancer surgery, the Vatican confirmed Monday. The Vatican press office said the pope’s recovery continues to progress in line with favorable assessments from his medical team. It also confirmed the pope is keeping the already ambitious trip program with no announced changes. Surgeons on Oct. 13 removed a lobe where the nodule later diagnosed as malignant was located, in the first major health event of Leo’s 17-month pontificate. The surgery confirmed he had adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer. Since returning to the Vatican, Leo has gradually resumed his activities while adjusting his schedule to prioritize recovery and periods of rest, the statement said.” (10/26/26)
- India: Gandhi Acquitted in Defamation Case
Source: US News & World Report
“Rahul Gandhi, the leader of India’s main opposition Congress party, was acquitted in a defamation case by a local court on Monday, TV channels said. The acquittal comes at a time when Gandhi is leading a united opposition campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Election Commissioner over a controversial revision of voter lists. … Gandhi was accused of calling India’s powerful Home Minister Amit Shah, who was then head of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a ‘murder accused’, during a state election campaign speech in 2018.” (10/26/26)
- Chris Brown given suspended eight-month prison sentence over nightclub attack
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“US singer Chris Brown has avoided jail after striking a man twice in the head with a glass tequila bottle in a London nightclub. The R&B star was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, over the attack at private members’ club Tape in Mayfair, in the early hours of 19 February 2023. Brown’s vocal coach, rapper Omololu Akinlolu, who joined the attack, was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. Both men, who had pleaded guilty to affray, were also ordered to pay £1,500 costs. Judge Tony Baumgartner said Brown’s use of the glass bottle to hit the victim twice over the head ‘was plainly dangerous’, adding that the violence of the attack was ‘intense’. The sentence means Brown will not be imprisoned unless he commits another offence during the 12-month period of suspension.” (10/26/26)
- SpaceX closes $40 billion debt deal for AI chips, Elon Musk says
Source: CNBC
“SpaceX has closed $40 billion in debt financing to buy graphics processing units, or GPUs, used to power artificial intelligence systems. In a post on X on Sunday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said it had closed the financing, adding that the company was investment grade and generated revenue from its Starlink satellite internet and rocket launch businesses. In a follow-up post, he added that the financing primarily consisted of callable debt for graphics processing units, which are expected to arrive in the first and second quarters of 2027. In a regulatory filing Monday, SpaceX said it signed a binding commitment with an Apollo-managed entity for roughly $40 billion in GPU financing.” (10/26/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/26/spacex-closes-40-billion-debt-deal-for-ai-chips-elon-musk-.html
- Trump says he ordered frivolous DOJ lawsuit over Alaska US Senate race
Source: SFGate
“President Donald Trump on Friday said he told his administration to file its lawsuit to block certification of the U.S. Senate race in Alaska if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, kicking off what many fear could become a lengthy battle between the government and states over certifying an election where the president’s party is struggling. ‘I’m the one that said do it,’ Trump told reporters as he landed for a campaign rally in Florida. The lawsuit, filed late Thursday, centers on one of the president’s longstanding complaints in the Senate race — the presence of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan …. The second Sullivan, who is Daniel J. Sullivan from the tiny fishing community of Petersburg, has said he decided to run on his own, but Republicans have contended he is a Democratic plant to siphon votes away from their candidate.” (10/26/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/trump-s-administration-sues-block-possible-22490957.php
- Bulgaria: Election heads to a run-off amid low voter turnout
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Bulgaria’s presidential election is heading to a run-off after polls closed with low voter turnout and no candidate passing the required threshold. Incumbent President Iliana Iotova received between 35 and 36.5 percent of votes on Sunday, according to exit polls. She will now face former caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov, who scored between 31 and 33.5 percent, in a second round on November 1.” (10/25/26)
- We Ain’t Seen The Half Of It … So Let’s Fix That
THANK YOU to supporter AT, whose $25 donation over the weekend brings our annual fundraiser total to (as of 5am) $1,053!
After a fantastic start, our “once and only once a year” fundraising event has slowed in pace … and that sucks, because the more quickly we reach our goal, the more quickly I stop talking about money entirely for the rest of 2026 and mostly for the first nine months of 2027.
Our goal is $5,503. Supporter GL has pledged to “match funds” for half of that, but not until we raise the FIRST half from you.
We’re 38% of the way there.
Let’s hit 50% — $1375.75 — TODAY.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT’S DAILY NEWSPAPER!
Have a great Monday!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - Brazil: Lula declared presidential election winner; Bolsonaro seeks annulment
Source: Associated Press
“Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America. With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, giving him 51.8% of the total vote. Bolsonaro quickly refused to concede defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that followed a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.” (10/26/26)
- Ukraine: Six Injured in Russian Strikes on Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv
Source: US News & World Report
“A Russian strike on Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia injured four people overnight, regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram on Monday. Two more were injured in Russian strikes on the Chernihiv region, Ukraine’s emergency service said on the messaging app. Also on Telegram, the Russian defence ministry said it hit a power station in Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, a warehouse in the surrounding region and another power station in the Khmelnitskiy region.” (10/26/26)
- Serbia: Vucic Concedes Defeat in Parliamentary Election
Source: New York Times
“Serbia’s longtime nationalist strongman, Aleksandar Vucic, conceded defeat Sunday in a general election held after his once-tight grip on power was weakened by nearly two years of student-led street protests. Serbia’s vote for a new Parliament came just six months after voters in neighboring Hungary rejected their own populist nationalist leader, Viktor Orban, a close ally of Mr. Vucic. The Serbian leader had adopted many of the Hungarian’s authoritarian methods — and, at the end, his gracious acceptance of defeat, as well. … Vucic, Europe’s longest-serving leader outside the former Soviet Union, has been Serbia’s dominant political figure since 2012, serving as both president and prime minister, a post he had hoped to regain after Sunday’s election.” (10/25/26)
- Appeals court resists US DoJ’s bid to immediately segregate California ballots
Source: The Hill
“A federal appeals court appeared unlikely to immediately agree to the Trump administration’s bid to segregate 20,000 California ballots it says are likely noncitizen voters, expressing skepticism at a rare Sunday hearing that a trial judge needs to move quicker. ‘I don’t see how we have jurisdiction,’ said U.S. Circuit Judge Mark Bennett. The Justice Department (DOJ) sued California earlier this month as the state rebuffed claims that it sent ballots to 20,000 likely noncitizens as part of its universal mail voting program. The DOJ wants the ballots segregated and verified before they can be counted. It’s one of multiple lawsuits the administration has launched in recent weeks as the midterm elections quickly approach. A trial judge is set to hold a hearing on Tuesday, but the DOJ says action is needed sooner, because ballots are already being submitted.” (10/25/26)
- Venezuela: Machado returns from exile to crowds of cheering supporters
Source: CNN
“After more than 10 months in exile, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado has returned home to a political landscape that has been reshaped by her ally the United States without her involvement. ‘In Venezuela! Together! For freedom!’ she posted on X Sunday night, alongside a video of her greeting a crowd of cheering supporters that surrounded her car, waving Venezuelan flags and blasting joyous music. … Machado had attempted to re-enter Venezuela seven times over the past few months without success, according to her advisers.” (10/25/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/25/americas/machado-returns-venezuela-latam-intl
- Canada: Conservative Party Wins First Election in Nearly a Century in British Columbia
Source: US News & World Report
“The opposition Conservative Party won an election in the Canadian province of British Columbia for the first time in nearly 100 years, promising to ramp up liquefied natural gas production, provisional results showed on Sunday. The result marks an end to nine years of power for the left-of-center New Democrats, who voiced opposition to new oil pipelines and supported a ban on tankers along the province’s northern coast. The right-leaning Conservatives won 64 of the 93 seats and the New Democrats won 27. It is the first Conservative provincial election win since 1928.” (10/25/26)
- Japan: US Marine indicted in Okinawa murder
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Prosecutors indicted a 20-year-old US Marine on Sunday on suspicion of robbing and murdering a woman in Okinawa earlier this month as the case renews anti-base sentiment among locals burdened with hosting the bulk of US military installations in Japan. Devin Ballard, who is stationed at Futenma Air Base, is charged with killing the woman by wrapping a phone cord around her neck at a hotel in Naha, the capital of the southern island prefecture, and taking her backpack containing a wallet on October 3, according to the indictment. The cause of death was suffocation, it said. … Following the incident, Okinawa Governor Genta Koja has stepped up calls on the central government to take preventive measures, with locals already angered by past crimes committed by American service members, including those against women and girls, in addition to noise and pollution issues.” (10/25/26)
- A Latin American NATO? It May Be Necessary
Source: Libertarian Institute
by José Niño“The United States, losing its influence in Eurasia, has retreated to its own hemisphere to reassert its hegemony in the region. Congress offers no brake. A Senate war powers resolution on Venezuela died after Vice President J.D. Vance broke a 50-to-50 tie, and a U.S. House version failed 215 to 215. Regional diplomacy proved just as feeble. Brazil’s Lula said the Maduro operation ‘crossed an unacceptable line,’ yet an emergency CELAC meeting on January 4 ended without a statement because Argentina and roughly 9 other governments blocked consensus. The tragedy is that Latin Americans saw this coming two centuries ago. … The strong gods of hard power have returned, Washington tramples international law, and great powers everywhere assert themselves without apology. A bully stops only when someone stands up to their aggression.” (10/26/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/a-latin-american-nato-it-may-be-necessary
- Trump: A Feral Lame Duck
Source: Washington Monthly
by Jonathan Alter“How will historians view the 2026 midterm elections? My guess is that many of them will write that ‘the Affordability Crisis’ helped save democracy. Without a dumb war and high diesel prices, Donald Trump’s autocratic behavior might have been validated at the polls. Imagine a world where 2027 and 2028 were more sinister versions of 2025. Look instead for a neutered beast. For all the talk about the House and Senate, these midterms may be remembered by history for a race for governor—a campaign that featured the most disgusting political ad in the history of television. Echoing Roy Cohn’s maxim to never, ever admit error, Donald Trump and JD Vance (Vivek Ramaswamy’s close friend and Yale Law classmate) doubled down on a child molester who raped both his daughter and, later, his stepdaughter. The latter was 12-year-old Amy Acton, now expected to be the governor-elect of Ohio.” (10/26/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/10/26/trump-a-feral-lame-duck/
- Abdul El-Sayed Would Freeze the Bill of Rights in the 18th Century
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille“Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, is the latest politician to suggest that the Second Amendment might shield the right to bear arms, but only those that existed at the time that it was adopted: namely, flintlock muskets. It’s a not-so-clever way of trimming back the Constitution’s protections. The argument’s flaws should be clear: the U.S. Supreme Court has already dismissed that line of reasoning, and a world in which the Bill of Rights applies only to 18th century technology would be one where freedom exists only in museum exhibits.” (10/26/26)
https://reason.com/2026/10/26/abdul-el-sayed-would-freeze-the-bill-of-rights-in-the-18th-century/
- Your speech, their rules: How foreign governments censor Americans
Source: Expression
by Trace Mitchell“It is a random Tuesday night, and you are relaxing on your living room couch scrolling through your social media feed. … You make fun of a politician you don’t like, share a clip from an interview with your favorite political talking head, crack a joke about a pressing social issue, or make a plug for the blog post that you just finished writing. Then, you head to bed without giving it a second thought. This is America, after all, and the First Amendment is always there to protect you from the government. Well, to protect you from our government. Under the First Amendment, the United States cannot retaliate against you for constitutionally protected speech and expression. But the First Amendment does not necessarily protect you from a bureaucrat in Brussels, a judge in Brazil, or a police force in Hong Kong.” (10/26/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/your-speech-their-rules-how-foreign
- The Real Culprit Behind High Grocery Prices
Source: The Atlantic
by Rogé Karma“Although neither farmers nor grocers make very much money, many of the middlemen who operate between them make plenty of it.” (10/26/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/10/grocery-prices-public-option/689132/
- We Should be Optimistic About the Internet Again
Source: Aaron Ross Powell
by Aaron Ross Powell“I want the internet to be better. There’s of course always the risk of nostalgia building an unearned sense that it in fact used to be, in every way. That the era before, say, Facebook was idyllic, or the time of Blogger and Movable Type a paradise of thoughtful and thought-elevating discourse. We tend not to remember the warts, and so think a return to the old ways is invariably a return to better ways. But I do think there are ways it has declined. The rise of platforms and the centralization that came with them has tipped the balance away from small and weird and obsessive and towards big and bland and optimized. … a lot of ‘making things better’ will entail making things smaller. Giving people communities they control the boundaries of, and letting them exist in multiple communities at once.” (10/26/26)
- Absurd court farce on noncitizen ballots leaves Voter ID as the only cure
Source: New York Post
by Joel Pollak“Voter ID is the only way to fix California’s broken election system. That’s the only reasonable conclusion from Sunday’s extraordinary hearing at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A three-judge panel heard the Trump administration’s case against non-citizen voting in California. Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) gave California a thumb drive with 20,000 names on it, ostensibly containing the names of suspected non-citizens who had registered to vote in the state. State and county officials, who had already sent ballots out by mail, refused to open it. So the DOJ sued in district court, hoping to force California to set aside those 20,000 ballots if and when they came in. Time is of the essence: ballots are already being mailed back, and counted. And once they are in, it’s almost impossible to fish them out again.” (10/25/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/10/25/opinion/absurd-non-citizen-voting-farce-leaves-voter-id-as-only-cure/
- Honest Men Turned Knaves
Source: Law & Liberty
by Max Skjönsberg“The force of partisan strife in modern politics should make us appreciate the need for checks and balances.” (10/26/26)
- The Spirit of Democracy Remains Strong
Source: Persuasion
by Francis Fukuyama“The news from Brazil, Serbia, and Venezuela should be celebrated. But it’s too soon to say if these victories are sustainable.” (10/26/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-spirit-of-democracy-remains-strong
- At Harvard, a pitch for constitutional free fall
Source: hypertext
by Matt Dreher“Frustrated by our politics, some intellectuals want to roll the dice on a vaguely defined Article V convention. What could go wrong?” (10/26/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/at-harvard-a-pitch-for-constitutional
- The Write-In Stuff
Source: The American Conservative
by Bill Kauffman“Must all change always be for the worst? In classic ‘arsenic or cyanide, sir?’ fashion, New Yorkers are given the Hobson’s choice between a Democratic Party that has lost any connection to rural and working-class Americans and a Republican Party that is running this year on the Iran War and building more data centers. Whoopee! Ever Pollyanna, I tease out the silver lining in this assault on democracy by scribbling write-in votes, so on November 3, 2026, I’ll be doing just that. And y’know, it’s kinda fun.” (10/26/26)
- The Most Important Midterm Race Is El-Sayed vs. Rogers in Michigan
Source: Common Dreams
by James Zogby“The Michigan Senate race between the Democratic nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, and his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, is this year’s most important election. It’s significant, on a number of levels, not the least of which is that El-Sayed is an Arab American Muslim of Egyptian descent. Prior to this, we’ve had four Arab Americans elected to the US Senate (former Majority Leader George Mitchell [D-ME], James Abourezk [D-SD], James Abdnor [R-SD], and John Sununu [R-NH]), none of them Muslim. If elected, El-Sayed would be the first Muslim in the Senate. This is a breakthrough that hasn’t been lost on Republicans and President Trump, who have made a determined effort to exploit it at every turn. They’ve done TV ads alleging that El-Sayed’s mother was affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s.” [editor’s note: The headline is likely correct, but maybe not for the reasons given here – SAT] (10/26/26)
- From 1215 to 2026
Source: Law & Liberty
by Luke C Sheahan“The principles of the Declaration are rooted in a heritage much older than 250 years.” (10/26/26)
- Who’s Afraid of AI?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Ella Dawson“The rich always have more resources at their disposal than do the poor, albeit with much more risk. But, AI, like many other inventions, gives the ordinary person the resources that previously may have been only available to the rich.” (10/26/26)
- When Money Becomes Everything
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith“Willie Sutton reportedly said he robbed banks because that’s where the money was. Willie would’ve made a good politician. Governments became friends with banks for the same reason Willie robbed them. If a sufficiently important bank issued more receipts for money than it had locked up in its vaults, people would get suspicious and start to pull their money out. The monetary contagion could spread to other banks, and government, which kept its loot in banks, would be in trouble. Using its status as an agency of coercion, government intervened to stop the redemption while keeping the banks in business.” (10/26/26)
- Liberalism Is for Ordinary People
Source: Liberal Currents
by Adam Gurri“We need to get better at describing our goals in these terms. My instinct, even now, is to say that the goal of liberalism is to produce an open society, to encourage mutual enrichment and mutual support under conditions of freedom. But we need to be able to paint a picture like the above, to say what these abstractions mean for the people who live where the factory opens, what it means to the local kids when a library opens up where there wasn’t one before.” (10/26/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/liberalism-is-for-ordinary-people/
- How Israel Used AI to Relentlessly Murder Palestinian Journalists and Their Families in Their Homes
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andy Worthington“Under international humanitarian law, as most noticeably enshrined in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977, ‘Civilian journalists engaged in professional missions in areas of armed conflict must be respected and protected as long as they are not taking a direct part in hostilities.’ (emphasis added). The State of Israel, however, has nothing but contempt for international humanitarian law. As far as they are concerned, everyone who works for a media outlet that is, in any way, aligned with the military wing of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or any other militant faction in Gaza, is a terrorist, and can be targeted and killed, and anyone who works as a journalist but has previously had any suspected involvement with any of these military factions in any kind of capacity can also be targeted and killed.” (10/26/26)
- Parents shouldn’t need Congress to see their children’s school curriculum
Source: Fox News
by David L Bernstein“Philadelphia parents noticed troubling signs in their children’s social studies curriculum and asked to see all the materials. They couldn’t get them. Now those materials have been brought to light in a congressional investigation. A new majority staff report from the House Education and Workforce Committee documents how a small group of school personnel turned Philadelphia’s social studies curriculum into a political platform for extremist causes. When those parents approached my organization, the North American Values Institute (NAVI), asking for help, we tried to find out what the district was teaching but we also hit a wall. Eventually, a teacher shared the curriculum with us with considerable trepidation. She asked that we protect her anonymity. That alone should give us pause: A teacher feared sharing public school instructional materials with people seeking to understand what children were learning.” (10/26/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/parents-shouldnt-need-help-congress-see-children-school-curriculum
- Trump Exempts Some Canadian Products From Section 338 Tariffs—But His Illegal Trade War Continues
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin“In addition to illegally usurping congressional power over taxation, the Trump trade war against Canada damages our economy and poisons relations with a key ally. Courts should strike it down, just as they did with the IEEPA tariffs and the more recent Section 122 tariffs. They should also invalidated the massive Section 301 ‘forced labor’ tariffs, which have been challenged in three cases currently before the US Court of International Trade.” (10/25/26)
- Arms Control, Not Ukraine, Should be on the Superpowers’ Agenda
Source: CounterPunch
by Imran Khalid“Asked at the White House whether he would sit down with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of next month’s APEC summit in Shenzhen, Donald Trump steered the conversation from Ukraine to warheads. ‘We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization,’ he said. Russia, he added, ‘has been fine on Ukraine.’ In the same exchange he suggested it was time for someone other than Volodymyr Zelensky to negotiate for Kyiv. Two proposals now ride on one invitation.” (10/26/26)
- The Grindhouse is the Opera of the Oppressed
Source: exile in happy valley
by Nicky Reid“The American grindhouse has long been a playground for fomenting radical notions among thrill seeking proles with a few bucks to spare and a taste for something right to the point. The high-brow critics call this exploitation cinema and wag their bony fingers at such fare for indulging in spectacle and bad taste and they aren’t totally wrong. The problem is that modern late-capitalist civilization has reduced us all to a slumbering horde of flesh-eating zombies and the spectacle of ‘bad taste’ or transgressing our prescribed bourgeoise sensibilities is the only thing that will ever wake us. I know because it has before and not that long ago. The neon bathed grindhouses of pre-Giuliani Time Square achieved this goal with a rash of garish subcultural revolutions while Godard sold out and every new wave became assimilated into Spielbergian Hollywood dreck.” (10/25/26)
https://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-grindhouse-is-opera-of-oppressed.html
- Taking Our Country Back
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon“Much like the phrase ‘will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood,’ the phrase ‘we’re taking our country back’ is an interesting one for its implications. It presupposes 1) there is a group collectively understood as ‘we’; 2) this group once had possession of the United States; 3) this group no longer has possession of the United States; 4) because it was taken away by another group; and 5) it must be taken back. This is all interesting stuff for sure, especially when one considers that the ‘we’ implicit in the phrase is, if you interrogate it long enough, white people—specifically white Christian people, specifically white Christian men, specifically wealthy white Christian men. Especially when one considers that this group, as a matter of political and institutional reality, is the most over-represented, over-coddled, over-defended, and over-privileged group in the nation, maybe in human history. ” (10/25/26)
- Question Before Los Angeles Not Whether to Have a Socialist Mayor, Just Which One
Source: The American Prospect
by Harold Meyerson“The media coverage of the contest between incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her challenger, City Councilmember Nithya Raman, is in one respect surprising. That a mayoral contest, which may result in Bass’s ouster, in America’s second-largest metropolis has drawn widespread coverage is no surprise, particularly since Raman’s membership in the Democratic Socialists of America appears to make the election one more test of the extent of socialism’s rise, particularly in urban America. But that the coverage has often focused on the internal divisions within DSA between those locals that prioritize the kinds of mass outreach inherent in electoral politics, and other locals and the organization’s national committee, which have a more sectarian focus on ideological purity, is indeed surprising, at least in publications that hardly qualify as ‘left’. ” (10/26/26)
- When Vaccine Injury Research Becomes Political, Patients Disappear
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Brianne Dressen“For years, people experiencing serious health problems due to Covid vaccination have asked for something fundamental: rigorous scientific investigation into what happened to them, why it happened, and what might help. Many have spent years seeking answers through a fragmented healthcare system, encountering clinicians unfamiliar with their symptoms, struggling to access appropriate evaluation, and trying to find researchers willing to investigate their conditions. Now, the National Institutes of Health has announced a dedicated research effort intended to investigate health problems following vaccination and infection.” (10/25/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/when-vaccine-injury-research-becomes-political-patients-disappear/
- A Surveilled Country Is Not a Free Country
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Daniel Nuccio“If you currently live in the United States, I regret to inform you that you no longer live in a free country. You are no longer a free person. Actually, you haven’t been for quite some time. This may sound harsh with this being the year America celebrated her big Two-Five-Oh. But think about it. Think back to the last time you drove from your home to the grocery store. How many automatic license plate readers did you pass along the way? How many apps logged your route? What information did your car collect about you and anyone who may have accompanied you? When you finally arrived at the store, surely there were cameras, but were they simply there to help catch and deter shoplifters — maybe help police investigate a more serious crime on the off chance one were to occur? Or were those cameras serving other purposes?” (10/24/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/a-surveilled-country-is-not-a-free-country/
- The Other Nathan Bedford Forrest Election Tactic
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“Few military figures come off quite so quotable as Confederate cavalry general (and Ku Klux Klan founder) Nathan Bedford Forrest, who said of winning battles, ‘I always make it a rule to get there first with the most men.’ That, of course, also constitutes the conventional rule for winning elections: Get there first (by motivating mail and ‘early’ voters as well as election day voters) with the most votes. … Republicans usually, but not always, get more credit for trying to suppress the Democrat vote than for trying to get out the Republican vote. As this year’s midterm elections approach, that tactic looks a lot like another Nathan Bedford Forrest aphorism. … ‘Whenever you see anything blue, shoot at it, and do all you can to keep up the scare.'” (10/25/26)
- Our Failed Constitution
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano“The U.S. Constitution was ratified to create and to restrain the government. It established boundaries beyond which the government may not venture, even when it invokes national security, public order, economic necessity, emergency or the will of a popular majority. Its purpose is not to make government more powerful but to keep the government off the people’s backs. By that measure, the American Constitution is a failure. Formally, the document physically survives, its ceremonies continue, and politicians swear their oaths to abide it. Yet functionally, the government it was designed to restrain has accumulated vast and totalitarian powers that its authors would never recognize.” (10/25/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2026/10/22/our-failed-constitution
- “You have this superpower” — how the left is weaponizing jury nullification
Source: The Hill
by Jonathan Turley“Far-left professors have long advocated that juries use jury nullification. Georgetown Law professor and MSNBC legal analyst Paul Butler has long advocated that Black jurors engage in nullification in cases involving Black defendants. … The problem of biased jurors has long plagued the legal system. It can work both ways in ignoring the law to refuse or secure convictions. Past cases involving President Trump and other Republicans have raised bias concerns over the jury pool in cities such as Washington, D.C., and New York City. But jury nullification is different; it is a direct assault on the very foundation of the American court system.” [editor’s note: Actually, it IS that very foundation; Turley just doesn’t much like mere peasants defying the lordly lawyer class – TLK] 10/24/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/6169577-jury-nullification-training-investigation/
- Is World Of Warcraft Evidence That Socialism Could Work?
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman“One of the attractive features of World of Warcraft and its competitors is that the virtual world has been constructed to be a place that it is fun to do things in. The real world has not. Some things that need doing are things that people enjoy enough to do them even when not paid to and get done that way. My guess is that the vast majority of all novels written, including at least a few good ones, produce no income for their authors and are not expected to. That is a better model for Utopian socialism than WoW, since there is no market. Producers have some information about what consumers want but not weak incentives to produce it. I doubt however that all, or even most, of the world’s work can get done that way.” (10/23/26)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/is-world-of-warcraft-evidence-that
- Abdul El-Sayed, You’re No Jack Kennedy
Source: American Greatness
by Fred Fleitz“Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed recently tried to shut down questions about his family’s documented ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and his own reluctance to draw clear lines on radical Islamist networks by invoking John F. Kennedy’s 1960 campaign. Kennedy faced suspicion that, as a Catholic, he might answer to the Vatican rather than the Constitution. El-Sayed’s comparison does not hold. He is not being targeted simply for being Muslim. He is facing legitimate questions about national security, ideology, and fitness for the Senate that any candidate with this record would face. His refusal to answer them directly is the problem.” (10/23/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/10/23/abdul-el-sayed-youre-no-jack-kennedy/
- What does Hillbilly Elegy tell us about JD Vance’s daimon?
Source: Freedom and Flourishing
by Winton Bates“J.D. Vance, Vice President of the United States, identifies himself as a post-liberal conservative. Since he is only a heartbeat away from becoming president, I have been thinking that I should read his latest book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, to see if it sheds any light on how he would be likely to use the powers of the presidency. However, I decided that I should read Hillbilly Elegy first – and am glad that I eventually managed to read it, a decade after its publication. I didn’t manage to get past the Introduction when I first attempted to read it a few years ago, but I now think it deserves its status as a best seller.” (10/25/26)
https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2026/10/what-does-hillbilly-elegy-tell-us-about.html
- They Wrecked Eisenhower’s World
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“Before D-Day, Eisenhower quietly composed a handwritten note taking personal blame for the operation’s failure—he was smart enough to know that success was uncertain and that he might not be in a position to talk about it afterward; Donald Trump, a dog-ate-my-homework guy if ever there were one, takes personal responsibility for precisely nothing. Eisenhower led Allied forces to victory in World War II and at the time of his retirement outranked George Washington (who received a posthumous promotion in 1976), but he was buried in a standard-issue soldier’s coffin and lay in state with no decorations on his field jacket except his two distinguished service medals and the Legion of Merit; Trump is a draft-dodging coward currently hard at work building himself a triumphal arch like some kind of limp Caesar.” (10/23/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/eisenhower-trump-hegseth-nato/
- Poem: There Are Polymarket Ads In Fortune Cookies
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“There are Polymarket ads in fortune cookies. / And pop-ups in our prayers. / There are paywalls on the monasteries, / and the monks are millionaires. / Well little Johnny’s gone to war. / He joined the McMarines. / The Iranians must be liberated / and blown to smithereens. / Light a candle in the chapel, John, / and pray to Western God, / and listen to the homily / the preacher wrote with Claude: / ‘Oh Western God, please guide our drones,’ the pious Johnny prayed. / ‘That we may safely bomb their schools / and turn their children gray.’ / The candle disappeared from sight / a minute into Johnny’s prayer, / and was replaced with hologram ads / for DraftKings and Wayfair.” (10/25/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/10/25/there-are-polymarket-ads-in-fortune-cookies/
- Trump claims we’ve beaten Iran. But US isn’t close to victory
Source: USA Today
by Daniel R DePetris“Serving as the world’s policeman in a highly contested environment like the strait is a resource-intensive mission even for the U.S. Navy – one that involves deploying significant air platforms, air defense systems and ships on a continuous basis to perform a variety of tasks, from coordinating sea lanes and protecting vessels from Iranian attacks to ensuring search-and-rescue assets are available if ships are disabled. The U.S. military is fully capable of doing this work, but stretched out over an indefinite period of time, the mission will exacerbate the depletion of precision-guided munitions the Pentagon needs for other potential conflicts.” (10/23/26)
- AI hasn’t replaced humans entirely; employers are still betting on college degrees
Source: Fox News
by Dr. Kent Ingle“The current narrative would have you believe that higher education is a dying institution. Experts consistently claim that a four-year degree is no longer worth the investment, warning that artificial intelligence (AI) is on the verge of rendering human labor obsolete. The prevailing message dictates that machines will soon dominate the workforce, leaving the next generation with no viable career paths. But a recent Gallup poll reveals a contrasting reality. While public anxiety is high, the job market tells a different story. According to a recent Gallup study, a staggering 80% of employers prefer to hire candidates with a college degree, even for roles that do not explicitly require one. Furthermore, six in 10 employers express a high level of confidence in higher education. While public trust in institutions has undeniably plummeted, the people actually handing out paychecks still find immense value in the university system.” (10/24/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ai-replaced-humans-employers-college-degrees
- Rising, 10/26/26
Source: The Hill
“‘Cheesecake Factory’: Obama trashes Trump despite numerous failures!” (10/26/26)
- Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 10/26/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“The Zodiac Killer C̶a̶s̶e̶ Hoax? w/ Eddie McNamara.” (10/26/26)
- Fountainhead Forum, episode 507
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Nadine Strossen on the ongoing fight for free speech in America.” (10/26/26)
- Interviews by Claire Lehmann, 10/26/26
Source: Quillette
“Gemma Tognini on Australia’s Political Revolt.” (10/26/26)
https://quillette.com/2026/10/26/gemma-tognini-on-australias-political-revolt/
- EconTalk, 10/26/26
Source: EconTalk
“How Your Situation Shapes You (with Angela Duckworth).” (10/26/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/how-your-situation-shapes-you-with-angela-duckworth/
- Neon Liberalism, episode 96
Source: Liberal Currents
“The Lies of Hearts of Iron.” (10/26/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-lies-of-hearts-of-iron-neon-liberalism-96-with-bret-devereaux/
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 10/26/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“The Case for Christian Nationalism Discussion: Cultural Christo-Authoritarianism (pt. 7).” (10/26/26)
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 10/26/26
Source: The Dispatch
“A Leader Doth Not a Statesman Make | Interview: Steven B. Smith.” (10/26/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/a-leader-doth-not-a-statesman-make-interview-steven-b-smith/
- Free Talk Live, 10/25/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Is voting pointless? :: Tim in FL calls and talks about death :: Dying :: Dave Ridley calls about a religious lawsuit against Dover NH :: Property taxes :: NHcornerstone.org :: Film the authorities when they harass you! :: Expatriation laws :: Sarah in NM calls about mail in ballots being smeared with fentanyl :: Skeeter calls to accuse and project :: Taxation is (not?) theft :: Should kids be educated? :: David in NM calls to educate us on how to end a call :: I love you, bye :: 2026-10-25 :: Hosts: Stu, Mr. Penguin, Mark Edge.” (10/25/26)
- Zooming In, 10/25/26
Source: The UnPopulist
“Liberals Need to Live Their Creed: A Conversation Between Jonathan Rauch and Alexandre Lefebvre.” (10/25/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/liberals-need-to-live-their-creed
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/25/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Report: Netanyahu Clashes With IDF Chief Over Iran, Saudi Airstrikes Kill 17 Civilians, and More.” (10/25/26)
- Evil Heaton “Fixes” Gerrymandering
Source: Reason
“A congressional guide to staying in power.” (10/25/26)
https://reason.com/video/2026/10/25/evil-heaton-fixes-gerrymandering/
- Unattended Baggage, episode 360
Source: Unattended Baggage
“To shreds, you say?” (10/24/26)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-360-to-shreds-you-say
- Pink Flame of Liberty, 10/24/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“The Mises Caucus being dishonest and manipulative AGAIN.” [editor’s note: “Again?” I’d say the correct term is “continuously” – TLK] (10/24/26)
- Free Talk Live, 10/24/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“Dave Ridley calls about the Hugging Face attack :: NickBostrom.com :: NH rules ‘no more student IDs for voting’ :: Technology Support Office :: EU worsens data laws :: Michael in TX calls about police abuses of power :: Sarah gets yelled at by Nobody :: ‘heat ray’ may be used by CBP at southern border :: Skeeter gets yelled at by Nobody :: 2026-10-24 :: Hosts: Stu, Riley O’Bill, Nobody.” (10/24/26)
- Reason Interview: Ted Brown
Source: Reason
“Could a Libertarian Swing the Texas Senate Race?” (10/23/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/10/23/could-a-libertarian-swing-the-texas-senate-race/
- Half the Answer, episode 110
Source: Liberal Currents
“What a Future with Fewer Vehicles Will Look Like.” (10/23/26)
- Anarcho Agenda, episode 152
Source: Anarcho Agenda
“They want you fighting each other so they can keep running things.” (10/23/26)
- Counterpunch Radio, 10/23/26
Source: CounterPunch
“Unphazed w/ Nasser Mashni of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network.” (10/23/26)
- Serious Trouble, 10/23/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“‘Esquire’ Is My Middle Name.” (10/23/26)